Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Review: Diptyque Do Son Eau de Toilette

I feel so excited to
finally have a Diptyque fragrance, hard to find, niche brand that rarely worn
by Indonesian people. Diptyque is really popular with their candles, even I
heard Christian Louboutin scented one of his event with Dipyique Tuberose
candle. Someday I will try some of their candles but in the mean time let’s see
this fragrance first.

Do Son is inspired
directly from Yves Coueslant's childhood in Vietnam, where he grew up in
Haïphong, a port in Northern Indo-China. Not far from there, in the little
seaside resort of Do Son, his father had a pagoda built by the sea to go to and
enjoy the sea air at the end of the day. His mother, hardly bearing the heat
and damp monsoon weather, used to rest for hours in the fresh and quiet
half-light of her sitting room. She loved the bitter sweet fragrance of
tuberoses and the great department store in town where she used to buy whatever
was fashionable from Paris... (via Diptyque
website)

Top
notes: African Orange Flower, Rose, Iris

Middle
notes: Tuberose, Pink Pepper

Base
notes: Benzoin, Musk

Do
Son opens with tuberose, for your information, in Indonesia it is called “Bunga
Sedap Malam” it could literally be translated to “Delicious Night Flower”. The
heady tuberose scent settles quickly into something lighter and fresher. Several
people made a comment that they detect jasmine and Balinese frangipani, I
believe it is the African orange flower because I couldn’t see jasmine or
frangipani listed in the notes.

It
stays linear, not complex. Basically Do Son is a lush and dewy white flowers
fragrance, sensual but fresh at the same time. For eau de toilette the
longevity is good. It stays around 4-5 hours on my skin. I tried the eau de
parfum in the store but it doesn’t last as long. It also loses the tuberose
after an hour and turn into this sheer sour smell.

Back
in the middle ages, and still today in some Western cultures, young unmarried
women are forbidden to smell tuberose for fear that the heady, sensual aroma will
reel their senses straight to the gates of perdition. But in Indonesia,
tuberose is used on many religious and mystic rituals.

Tuberose at the altar. Doc: Google

As
Indonesian with Chinese descent, my family still celebrates several rituals,
“sembahyang” (praying) at the altar is one of them, it could be Gods and
Goddesses altar, it could be deceased family member altar. We will put a vase
full of fresh flowers there, tuberose included. In the night those tuberose
will bloom and spread their scent all over the room.As I’m writing this post, I can imagine the
heady scent of tuberose mix with burnt incense.

If
you go to Bali, you can see so many “sesajen” (see picture) in front of the native houses. I
never really check the exact content but I swear it smells like tuberose buds,
jasmine, Balinese frangipani and incense. Any Balinese reader? Please enlighten
us about this ‘sesajen’.

Balinese Sesajen. Photo by Lucas Photography. Doc:Google

Other
than that, Do Son reminds so many people around me about graveyard and mystics
rituals. Do you know that tuberose and jasmine petals are being spread on top
of the graveyard in Indonesia? Westerners put flower bouquet and long stem
roses on the grave. We Indonesian put “kembang tujuh rupa” (seven types of
flowers). Tuberose and jasmine petals are included.

Kembang Tujuh Rupa. Pict taken from pedomannusantara.com

Also
if you ever had chance to visit Indonesian graveyard you will notice a big
Balinese frangipani tree shadowing and protecting the graves under. Give the
impression of cool, silent, and dark fragrant place.

Frangipani Tree above the Graveyard. Doc: Google

Diptyque
Do Son with the tuberose-jasmine-frangipani scent reminds me of those things.
Some people I know are disturbed by it smells, it reminds them of ‘death’, but
all I can say is, I love it dearly. It reminds me of my beloved grandmother, it
reminds me of spirituality, it gives me a sense of serenity. Definitely a
lovely fragrance.